GoPro Mountain Games: A Celebration of Adventure Sports
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GoPro Mountain Games: A Celebration of Adventure Sports
With warm temperatures in Vail this weekend, the water raged down Class V Homestake Creek on Friday, where more than 50 kayakers raced at the Bud Light Lime-A-Rita Steep Creek Championships on the first day of the GoPro Mountain Games. Martina Wegman won the women’s race for the third straight year, while Issac Levinson beat world champion Dane Jackson to win the men’s race.
Bikers took on high-flying ramps at the Slopestyle event, which featured earthworks of gap jumps, berms and spines for the competitors to show off their tricks and battle for the $10,000 grand prize.
The best professional slackliners gathered in Vail for the Slackline World Cup, where they balanced on narrow webbing anchored between two points.
Competitors in The Eddie Bauer BADASS Dash, a 7K course with more than 25 unconventional obstacles to complete, trekked up a snow-covered mountain during part of the race.
The Kayak Freestyle competition is a staple at the GoPro Mountain Games, and this year’s battle went down at the Vail Whitewater Park. Each kayaker had a timed run to show off his best cartwheels, loops, phonics monkeys, space godzillas and other wild tricks to impress the judges.
At the SUP Surf Cross event on Gore Creek, stand-up paddle boarders battled against each other (protective gear is necessary for this full-contact sport) and tried to get through a 200-yard sprint up the creek to win the event’s top spot on the podium.
Racers in The Eddie Bauer BADASS Dash slithered underneath a ropes course, one of the event’s 25 obstacles.
Slopestyle riders got some serious air during the competition. Canada’s Garrett Roberston earned first place, while Josh Hult of Idaho Falls, Idaho, fell two points behind and finished in second.
Climbers in the IFSC Bouldering World Cup ascended up the mountain wall in Vail, but it was Akiyo Noguchi of Japan who upset three-time champion Anna Stoher of Austria for the first place spot.
Canine participants in the DuckDogs Big Air competition – a long jump for dogs – carried toys back to their owners after leaping off the end of a dock and into a pool.